Forbidden Pages, GENERAL

A bold tapestry of color and text, GENERAL is a mixed media work on paper from the Forbidden Pages Collection that honors the many lives and legacies of Harriet Tubman. Created with layered letterpress and relief printing, the composition features a vibrant plaid of intersecting lines in blue, yellow, red, and violet—reminiscent of barcodes, grids, and woven memory. Over this dynamic structure, names and roles appear in varying typefaces: AUNT, HARRIET, MOSES, NURSE, SPY, SUFFRAGIST, CONDUCTOR, and GENERAL—each one marking a chapter in Tubman’s extraordinary life.

The repetition and layering of the word “GENERAL” asserts her authority and challenges her erasure from dominant historical narratives. Oversized numbers and partial ISBN codes, some inverted or obscured, reference the bureaucratic systems that have reduced stories like hers to data points—and then attempted to erase them altogether through book bans.

This piece directly references Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome, a children’s book banned in Duval County, Florida. In GENERAL, Tubman’s many identities are reclaimed and elevated through a print language that resists simplification, urging viewers to read beyond the lines.